Richard Ashdowne and Carolinne White
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
The use of Latin in the medieval world is so fundamental a fact that it is commonly not remarked upon and rarely discussed in detail. Yet its continued use in Europe after the demise of the Roman ...
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The use of Latin in the medieval world is so fundamental a fact that it is commonly not remarked upon and rarely discussed in detail. Yet its continued use in Europe after the demise of the Roman Empire and the broad extent of that use are remarkable, not least because Latin was not a native language for any of its users. This introductory chapter sets out to demonstrate the vitality and importance of this Latin, with a particular focus on the contexts of its use and on Britain. It first sets out the chronological, geographical, and linguistic boundaries adopted for the volume (the Latin of Britain from the mid-6th century to the end of the 16th), and considers issues arising from them, especially from the inherently multilingual context for Medieval Latin in Britain. The use of Latin in Britain is discussed with regard to what it was used for and by whom, including questions of literacy and its use as an oral language. A brief discussion follows of previous work on Latin of the medieval period and of Britain in particular. The other chapters are discussed, highlighting the continuity with other Latins and adaptation to the circumstances of use.Less
The use of Latin in the medieval world is so fundamental a fact that it is commonly not remarked upon and rarely discussed in detail. Yet its continued use in Europe after the demise of the Roman Empire and the broad extent of that use are remarkable, not least because Latin was not a native language for any of its users. This introductory chapter sets out to demonstrate the vitality and importance of this Latin, with a particular focus on the contexts of its use and on Britain. It first sets out the chronological, geographical, and linguistic boundaries adopted for the volume (the Latin of Britain from the mid-6th century to the end of the 16th), and considers issues arising from them, especially from the inherently multilingual context for Medieval Latin in Britain. The use of Latin in Britain is discussed with regard to what it was used for and by whom, including questions of literacy and its use as an oral language. A brief discussion follows of previous work on Latin of the medieval period and of Britain in particular. The other chapters are discussed, highlighting the continuity with other Latins and adaptation to the circumstances of use.
Jane Stevenson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198185024
- eISBN:
- 9780191714238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198185024.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This chapter discusses the rise of the vernaculars and changing role of Latin in medieval Europe. It presents the evidence for nuns and other religious women as poets in Latin. It also examines ...
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This chapter discusses the rise of the vernaculars and changing role of Latin in medieval Europe. It presents the evidence for nuns and other religious women as poets in Latin. It also examines different varieties of religious life for medieval women, and the implications of these different lifestyles for access to Latin literacy. It discusses women and the exercise of authority in medieval Europe (notably by Norman royal ladies): early arguments for the Latin education of noblewomen. The chapter includes specific sections on surviving anonymous Latin verse in women's voices, rotuli (memorial rolls) as evidence for convent literacy, Baudri of Bourgeuil's circle of educated women, particularly Constantia, women Latinists in northern Europe, especially Hildegard of Bingen, the nuns of Helfta, the love-verses from Regensburg, and Willetrudis's Versus de Susanna: it is argued that this last may have been written at Wilton.Less
This chapter discusses the rise of the vernaculars and changing role of Latin in medieval Europe. It presents the evidence for nuns and other religious women as poets in Latin. It also examines different varieties of religious life for medieval women, and the implications of these different lifestyles for access to Latin literacy. It discusses women and the exercise of authority in medieval Europe (notably by Norman royal ladies): early arguments for the Latin education of noblewomen. The chapter includes specific sections on surviving anonymous Latin verse in women's voices, rotuli (memorial rolls) as evidence for convent literacy, Baudri of Bourgeuil's circle of educated women, particularly Constantia, women Latinists in northern Europe, especially Hildegard of Bingen, the nuns of Helfta, the love-verses from Regensburg, and Willetrudis's Versus de Susanna: it is argued that this last may have been written at Wilton.
Tobias Reinhardt, Michael Lapidge, and J. N. Adams (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263327
- eISBN:
- 9780191734168
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263327.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Twenty chapters from two often-dissociated areas of Latin studies, classical and medieval Latin, examine continuities and developments in the language of Latin prose from its emergence to the twelfth ...
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Twenty chapters from two often-dissociated areas of Latin studies, classical and medieval Latin, examine continuities and developments in the language of Latin prose from its emergence to the twelfth century. Language is not understood in a narrowly philological or linguistic sense, but as encompassing the literary exploitation of linguistic effects and the influence of formal rhetoric on prose. Key themes explored throughout this book are the use of poetic diction in prose, archaism, sentence structure, and bilingualism. Chapters cover a comprehensive range of material including studies of individual works, groups of authors such as the Republican historians, prose genres such as the ancient novel or medieval biography, and linguistic topics such as the use of connectives in archaic Latin or prose rhythm in medieval Latin.Less
Twenty chapters from two often-dissociated areas of Latin studies, classical and medieval Latin, examine continuities and developments in the language of Latin prose from its emergence to the twelfth century. Language is not understood in a narrowly philological or linguistic sense, but as encompassing the literary exploitation of linguistic effects and the influence of formal rhetoric on prose. Key themes explored throughout this book are the use of poetic diction in prose, archaism, sentence structure, and bilingualism. Chapters cover a comprehensive range of material including studies of individual works, groups of authors such as the Republican historians, prose genres such as the ancient novel or medieval biography, and linguistic topics such as the use of connectives in archaic Latin or prose rhythm in medieval Latin.
Christopher I. Beckwith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155319
- eISBN:
- 9781400845170
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155319.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other ...
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This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other cultures that had the same constitutive elements but did not develop science. These are the control cases, which include India, Tibet, China, and the Byzantine Empire. The first civilization in the world to develop a full scientific culture was medieval Western Europe. It led directly to the scientific revolution—during which some changes to the details of the constituent elements took place—and continued on down to modern science. The essential elements of medieval science were introduced to Western Europe via Classical Arabic civilization. The chapter describes the appearance of science in Medieval Latin Europe and the decline of science in the medieval Islamic world.Less
This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other cultures that had the same constitutive elements but did not develop science. These are the control cases, which include India, Tibet, China, and the Byzantine Empire. The first civilization in the world to develop a full scientific culture was medieval Western Europe. It led directly to the scientific revolution—during which some changes to the details of the constituent elements took place—and continued on down to modern science. The essential elements of medieval science were introduced to Western Europe via Classical Arabic civilization. The chapter describes the appearance of science in Medieval Latin Europe and the decline of science in the medieval Islamic world.
Giovanni Orlandi
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263327
- eISBN:
- 9780191734168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263327.003.0021
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The possibility that quantitative clausulae were sought by authors of the Latin literature of the medieval West offers a new means of entering the debate over ‘continuity or discontinuity’ between ...
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The possibility that quantitative clausulae were sought by authors of the Latin literature of the medieval West offers a new means of entering the debate over ‘continuity or discontinuity’ between late antiquity and the Latin Middle Ages. The principles and aims of calculating prose rhythm, whether quantitative or tonic, have been changed; but much has returned as well. The variation of prosodical structure between the body and the end of a period may well be due to other reasons than the search for rhythm, such as the general preference of a long word to a short one to close a sentence. If the presented preliminary results are confirmed in the future by larger samples, it may be possible to trace in this twelfth-century prose a tendency towards what was to become the system characteristic of the Italian schools of ars dictaminis, namely a division of functions between the cursus tardus, deputed to minor pauses, and the obligatory cursus uelox, used to conclude nearly every sentence.Less
The possibility that quantitative clausulae were sought by authors of the Latin literature of the medieval West offers a new means of entering the debate over ‘continuity or discontinuity’ between late antiquity and the Latin Middle Ages. The principles and aims of calculating prose rhythm, whether quantitative or tonic, have been changed; but much has returned as well. The variation of prosodical structure between the body and the end of a period may well be due to other reasons than the search for rhythm, such as the general preference of a long word to a short one to close a sentence. If the presented preliminary results are confirmed in the future by larger samples, it may be possible to trace in this twelfth-century prose a tendency towards what was to become the system characteristic of the Italian schools of ars dictaminis, namely a division of functions between the cursus tardus, deputed to minor pauses, and the obligatory cursus uelox, used to conclude nearly every sentence.
Robert Swanson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
The 15th and 16th centuries are often depicted as the death throes of Latin in England, supplanted by ‘The Rise of English’. Arguing that more English did not necessarily mean less Latin, this ...
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The 15th and 16th centuries are often depicted as the death throes of Latin in England, supplanted by ‘The Rise of English’. Arguing that more English did not necessarily mean less Latin, this chapter assesses the role of Latin in England from c.1400 to c.1540, and suggests that in terms of overall cultural history, use, and the accumulated inheritance from the past, this may have been when England was at its most Latinate of all. Considering the use of Latin as a spectrum of skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—and across a range of abilities, it offers a positive appreciation of late Medieval Latin as a vital force in a multilingual society.Less
The 15th and 16th centuries are often depicted as the death throes of Latin in England, supplanted by ‘The Rise of English’. Arguing that more English did not necessarily mean less Latin, this chapter assesses the role of Latin in England from c.1400 to c.1540, and suggests that in terms of overall cultural history, use, and the accumulated inheritance from the past, this may have been when England was at its most Latinate of all. Considering the use of Latin as a spectrum of skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—and across a range of abilities, it offers a positive appreciation of late Medieval Latin as a vital force in a multilingual society.
Richard Ashdowne and Carolinne White (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it ...
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This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it was nevertheless used extensively for a wide variety of functions from religion, literature, and philosophy to record-keeping and correspondence. It existed alongside a number of everyday native spoken languages, including English, Anglo-Norman French, and Welsh. The chapters examine Latin with regard to the many multilingual contexts in which it was used, looking beyond narrow comparisons with its Roman ancestor to see what medieval users did with Latin and the diverse effects this had on the language. The fifteen chapters are divided into three parts. The first part considers important examples of Latin usage in Britain during four successive periods, pre-Conquest, the 12th, long-14th, and 15th and 16th centuries. In the second part, examples of different spheres of use are examined, including the law, the church, music, and science (and its assimilation of Arabic). In the final part the use of Latin is considered alongside the many native languages of medieval Britain, looking at how the languages had different roles and how they influenced each other. In all the many contexts in which Latin was used, its use reveals continuity matched with adaptation to circumstance, not least in the development of new vocabulary for the language. Between these two poles users of Latin steered a course that suited their own needs and those of their intended audience.Less
This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it was nevertheless used extensively for a wide variety of functions from religion, literature, and philosophy to record-keeping and correspondence. It existed alongside a number of everyday native spoken languages, including English, Anglo-Norman French, and Welsh. The chapters examine Latin with regard to the many multilingual contexts in which it was used, looking beyond narrow comparisons with its Roman ancestor to see what medieval users did with Latin and the diverse effects this had on the language. The fifteen chapters are divided into three parts. The first part considers important examples of Latin usage in Britain during four successive periods, pre-Conquest, the 12th, long-14th, and 15th and 16th centuries. In the second part, examples of different spheres of use are examined, including the law, the church, music, and science (and its assimilation of Arabic). In the final part the use of Latin is considered alongside the many native languages of medieval Britain, looking at how the languages had different roles and how they influenced each other. In all the many contexts in which Latin was used, its use reveals continuity matched with adaptation to circumstance, not least in the development of new vocabulary for the language. Between these two poles users of Latin steered a course that suited their own needs and those of their intended audience.
Michael Lapidge
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263327
- eISBN:
- 9780191734168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263327.003.0016
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which ...
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This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which Anglo-Latin authors were aware of different stylistic registers, and how well they understood what diction was appropriate to either prose or verse. Using the example of Bede as a starting point, the chapter provides a list of those features of poetic diction that are found, in varying degrees, in the authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The seven criteria presented provide a crude measuring-stick against which to assess the poeticism of the principal authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The study of poeticism in Anglo-Latin prose, and in medieval Latin literature in general, is a subject that awaits exploration.Less
This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which Anglo-Latin authors were aware of different stylistic registers, and how well they understood what diction was appropriate to either prose or verse. Using the example of Bede as a starting point, the chapter provides a list of those features of poetic diction that are found, in varying degrees, in the authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The seven criteria presented provide a crude measuring-stick against which to assess the poeticism of the principal authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The study of poeticism in Anglo-Latin prose, and in medieval Latin literature in general, is a subject that awaits exploration.
D. Gary Miller
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199654260
- eISBN:
- 9780191742064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654260.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Lexicography
Revival of the liberal arts and classical studies at several times was responsible for multiple periods of influx of Greek and Latin loanwords in English. This chapter outlines the works that were ...
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Revival of the liberal arts and classical studies at several times was responsible for multiple periods of influx of Greek and Latin loanwords in English. This chapter outlines the works that were influential on the external history of English in connection with the continental background to the events in the British Isles discussed in previous chapters. The main topics are Ecclesiastical Latin, the reforms of Alcuin and Medieval Latin, the Humanistic and Neolatin of the Renaissance, the effects of printing and other factors on standardization, latinate vocabulary in Shakespeare and other literary works, and the technical and scientific terminology in the post‐Renaissance period.Less
Revival of the liberal arts and classical studies at several times was responsible for multiple periods of influx of Greek and Latin loanwords in English. This chapter outlines the works that were influential on the external history of English in connection with the continental background to the events in the British Isles discussed in previous chapters. The main topics are Ecclesiastical Latin, the reforms of Alcuin and Medieval Latin, the Humanistic and Neolatin of the Renaissance, the effects of printing and other factors on standardization, latinate vocabulary in Shakespeare and other literary works, and the technical and scientific terminology in the post‐Renaissance period.
Michael Lapidge and Peter Matthews
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263204
- eISBN:
- 9780191734205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263204.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts ...
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Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts were transmitted. This task necessitated constant travel to British and continental libraries in order to provide herself with transcriptions of grammatical texts; it also necessitated the acquisition of a huge collection of microfilms of grammatical manuscripts. Her work on these manuscripts soon revealed a vast and uncharted sea of unedited and unstudied grammatical texts, for the most part anonymous. A major component of her life's work was the attempt to chart this sea. Her earliest publications reveal a profound experience of grammatical manuscripts and a refusal simply to reiterate the opinions of earlier scholars. All these publications report new discoveries, such as previously unknown Old English glosses to the Ars grammatica of Tatwine, an early 8th-century Anglo-Saxon grammarian; or unsuspected aspects of the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and continental learning as revealed in the transmission of the grammars of Boniface and Tatwine; or the true nature of the jumbled and misunderstood grammar attributed to the early Irish grammarian Malsachanus.Less
Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts were transmitted. This task necessitated constant travel to British and continental libraries in order to provide herself with transcriptions of grammatical texts; it also necessitated the acquisition of a huge collection of microfilms of grammatical manuscripts. Her work on these manuscripts soon revealed a vast and uncharted sea of unedited and unstudied grammatical texts, for the most part anonymous. A major component of her life's work was the attempt to chart this sea. Her earliest publications reveal a profound experience of grammatical manuscripts and a refusal simply to reiterate the opinions of earlier scholars. All these publications report new discoveries, such as previously unknown Old English glosses to the Ars grammatica of Tatwine, an early 8th-century Anglo-Saxon grammarian; or unsuspected aspects of the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and continental learning as revealed in the transmission of the grammars of Boniface and Tatwine; or the true nature of the jumbled and misunderstood grammar attributed to the early Irish grammarian Malsachanus.
Jane Stevenson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198185024
- eISBN:
- 9780191714238
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198185024.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This book addresses women's relationship to culture between the 1st century BC and the 18th century by identifying women who wrote poetry in Latin. It also considers women's prose writing in Latin ...
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This book addresses women's relationship to culture between the 1st century BC and the 18th century by identifying women who wrote poetry in Latin. It also considers women's prose writing in Latin and their performance as Latin orators. The earlier chapters move forward through time up to the Renaissance, which is then treated on a country-by-country basis, followed by a second suite of chapters on the early modern era. It surveys the phenomenon of women who achieved a position in public life at a time when this was not open to women in general, and how the societies in which this occurred permitted this to happen. It is completed by a checklist of more than 300 women Latin poets, identifying where possible their names, place, milieu, and providing details of their work and a comprehensive finding guide listing manuscripts, editions, and translations.Less
This book addresses women's relationship to culture between the 1st century BC and the 18th century by identifying women who wrote poetry in Latin. It also considers women's prose writing in Latin and their performance as Latin orators. The earlier chapters move forward through time up to the Renaissance, which is then treated on a country-by-country basis, followed by a second suite of chapters on the early modern era. It surveys the phenomenon of women who achieved a position in public life at a time when this was not open to women in general, and how the societies in which this occurred permitted this to happen. It is completed by a checklist of more than 300 women Latin poets, identifying where possible their names, place, milieu, and providing details of their work and a comprehensive finding guide listing manuscripts, editions, and translations.
Laura Wright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
Accounts of institutions and private individuals between the Norman Conquest and about 1500 were routinely written in a non-random mixture of Medieval Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English. If the ...
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Accounts of institutions and private individuals between the Norman Conquest and about 1500 were routinely written in a non-random mixture of Medieval Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English. If the base language was Medieval Latin, then only nouns, stems of verbs, and certain semantic fields such as weights and measures could appear in English or French, with all the grammatical material in Latin and English and Anglo-Norman nouns, verbs, and adjectives Latinised by adding a suffix, or an abbreviation sign representing a suffix. If the base language was Anglo-Norman, then only the same restricted semantic fields and nouns and stems of verbs could appear in English. This situation changed over time, but was essentially stable for almost five hundred years. The chapter asks why, if English words could easily be assimilated into a Latin or French matrix by means of suffixes or abbreviations representing suffixes, were all English words not assimilated? Why did letter graphies such as <wr->, <-ck>, <-ght> persist in mixed-language business writing? One effect is to make the text-type of business writing very unlike any other genre—half a glance is all it takes to recognise a mixed-language business document and that may have been an advantage.Less
Accounts of institutions and private individuals between the Norman Conquest and about 1500 were routinely written in a non-random mixture of Medieval Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English. If the base language was Medieval Latin, then only nouns, stems of verbs, and certain semantic fields such as weights and measures could appear in English or French, with all the grammatical material in Latin and English and Anglo-Norman nouns, verbs, and adjectives Latinised by adding a suffix, or an abbreviation sign representing a suffix. If the base language was Anglo-Norman, then only the same restricted semantic fields and nouns and stems of verbs could appear in English. This situation changed over time, but was essentially stable for almost five hundred years. The chapter asks why, if English words could easily be assimilated into a Latin or French matrix by means of suffixes or abbreviations representing suffixes, were all English words not assimilated? Why did letter graphies such as <wr->, <-ck>, <-ght> persist in mixed-language business writing? One effect is to make the text-type of business writing very unlike any other genre—half a glance is all it takes to recognise a mixed-language business document and that may have been an advantage.
Richard Sharpe
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
The terminology of official documents in England changed with the Norman Conquest, and this chapter focuses on the words used for ealdorman, earl, count, thegn, baron, sheriff, reeve, and shire ...
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The terminology of official documents in England changed with the Norman Conquest, and this chapter focuses on the words used for ealdorman, earl, count, thegn, baron, sheriff, reeve, and shire during the 11th and early-12th centuries. Unofficial texts sometimes preferred not to use the official terms but drew on a more classical vocabulary, investing words with the specific connotations of the underlying terms for which they were substitutes. Words that carry such specific meanings are identified by using unofficial Medieval Latin translations of official documents in Old English, law tracts that translate or reflect Old English terms, and translations or reworkings of narrative sources in both languages. Examples of the unofficial vocabulary are reviewed, and how far both the DMLBS and modern editions of texts have recognised their use is appraised. Such lexical substitution has not been treated as a semantic category by dictionaries, but it must be recognised to arrive at a true contextual understanding of words used in primary sources. The examples shed light on categories of office and rank across this period, and the argument will lead to much rethinking of how passages in the sources are understood. The linguistic implications extend beyond the words studied.Less
The terminology of official documents in England changed with the Norman Conquest, and this chapter focuses on the words used for ealdorman, earl, count, thegn, baron, sheriff, reeve, and shire during the 11th and early-12th centuries. Unofficial texts sometimes preferred not to use the official terms but drew on a more classical vocabulary, investing words with the specific connotations of the underlying terms for which they were substitutes. Words that carry such specific meanings are identified by using unofficial Medieval Latin translations of official documents in Old English, law tracts that translate or reflect Old English terms, and translations or reworkings of narrative sources in both languages. Examples of the unofficial vocabulary are reviewed, and how far both the DMLBS and modern editions of texts have recognised their use is appraised. Such lexical substitution has not been treated as a semantic category by dictionaries, but it must be recognised to arrive at a true contextual understanding of words used in primary sources. The examples shed light on categories of office and rank across this period, and the argument will lead to much rethinking of how passages in the sources are understood. The linguistic implications extend beyond the words studied.
William Marx
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265833
- eISBN:
- 9780191771996
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265833.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 12 is a predominantly Welsh-language miscellany that also contains texts in Middle English and Latin. On folio 79v is the inscription ‘Llyfr Hugh ...
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Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 12 is a predominantly Welsh-language miscellany that also contains texts in Middle English and Latin. On folio 79v is the inscription ‘Llyfr Hugh Evans yw hwn Anno 1583’, that is ‘This is Hugh Evans’s book, in the year 1583’. As a miscellany the manuscript is of interest as much for what it suggests about the process of compilation as for its contents, for while it is in one sense of the late 16th century, a number of significant parts are gatherings from medieval manuscripts, both Welsh and English. The evidence of the process of compilation that the manuscript yields has much to suggest about the interplay between Welsh-language and English-language culture over a broad historical perspective, and this raises questions about the linguistic and cultural history of medieval and early modern Wales.Less
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 12 is a predominantly Welsh-language miscellany that also contains texts in Middle English and Latin. On folio 79v is the inscription ‘Llyfr Hugh Evans yw hwn Anno 1583’, that is ‘This is Hugh Evans’s book, in the year 1583’. As a miscellany the manuscript is of interest as much for what it suggests about the process of compilation as for its contents, for while it is in one sense of the late 16th century, a number of significant parts are gatherings from medieval manuscripts, both Welsh and English. The evidence of the process of compilation that the manuscript yields has much to suggest about the interplay between Welsh-language and English-language culture over a broad historical perspective, and this raises questions about the linguistic and cultural history of medieval and early modern Wales.
Paul Brand
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
A distinctive feature of the English royal courts created in the last quarter of the 12th century was that they kept a full record of their business in Latin and the clerks who did this developed a ...
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A distinctive feature of the English royal courts created in the last quarter of the 12th century was that they kept a full record of their business in Latin and the clerks who did this developed a distinctive vocabulary to translate the Anglo-Norman French they heard in court. This paper looks at some of that Medieval Latin lexicography for the legal profession: the development of specific terms for litigants and their representatives and judges; for the writs for initiating litigation and to secure the appearance of opponents; for the plaintiff’s claim or complaint and the defendant’s defence; for the modes of proof and judgement. The chapter concludes with a more detailed examination of the specific terminology of a single action (of replevin) which allowed someone whose property had been taken in distraint to challenge the justice of an unjust distraint.Less
A distinctive feature of the English royal courts created in the last quarter of the 12th century was that they kept a full record of their business in Latin and the clerks who did this developed a distinctive vocabulary to translate the Anglo-Norman French they heard in court. This paper looks at some of that Medieval Latin lexicography for the legal profession: the development of specific terms for litigants and their representatives and judges; for the writs for initiating litigation and to secure the appearance of opponents; for the plaintiff’s claim or complaint and the defendant’s defence; for the modes of proof and judgement. The chapter concludes with a more detailed examination of the specific terminology of a single action (of replevin) which allowed someone whose property had been taken in distraint to challenge the justice of an unjust distraint.
Brian Murdoch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199596409
- eISBN:
- 9780191745737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596409.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Literature
Much attention has been paid to the Gregorius-tradition in Germany. The medieval German poem by Hartmann von Aue, based on the early French version, is important as a major work of literature, and ...
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Much attention has been paid to the Gregorius-tradition in Germany. The medieval German poem by Hartmann von Aue, based on the early French version, is important as a major work of literature, and many further texts were based upon it. Those in prose are treated in the next chapter. This chapter analyses Hartmann’s work, his use of paradox and of complex cumulative imagery, and his presentation of a philosophy of sin and grace deriving partly from Gregory the Great, and stressing again the dangers of despairing in God. Two medieval Latin poems also derive from Hartmann, the more theological full version by Arnold of Lübeck and a brief anonymous poem in hexameters from south Germany designed for school rhetoric lessons.Less
Much attention has been paid to the Gregorius-tradition in Germany. The medieval German poem by Hartmann von Aue, based on the early French version, is important as a major work of literature, and many further texts were based upon it. Those in prose are treated in the next chapter. This chapter analyses Hartmann’s work, his use of paradox and of complex cumulative imagery, and his presentation of a philosophy of sin and grace deriving partly from Gregory the Great, and stressing again the dangers of despairing in God. Two medieval Latin poems also derive from Hartmann, the more theological full version by Arnold of Lübeck and a brief anonymous poem in hexameters from south Germany designed for school rhetoric lessons.
Carmela Vircillo Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198818489
- eISBN:
- 9780191859540
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198818489.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter juxtaposes the theory and the practice of philology in the late nineteenth-century race to produce a modern critical edition of the Liber pontificalis. The resulting works, one by the ...
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This chapter juxtaposes the theory and the practice of philology in the late nineteenth-century race to produce a modern critical edition of the Liber pontificalis. The resulting works, one by the French priest and church historian Louis Duchesne, the other by the classicist and German patriot Theodor Mommsen, showcase the editors’ divergent aims in the application of recensionist criticism, shaped as it was by their scholarly, national, religious, and personal loyalties. Mommsen’s edition adheres to the principles of ‘German’ critical philology and its desire to recover the original text; Duchesne’s two volumes exploit the nature of the medieval papal chronicle as a constantly changing ‘living text’ in order to emphasize the historical significance of its reception. Both editions illustrate the themes of marginality and canonicity as they relate to literary genre and historical period, to religious commitment and national sentiment, and to the tension between classical methodology and medieval texts.Less
This chapter juxtaposes the theory and the practice of philology in the late nineteenth-century race to produce a modern critical edition of the Liber pontificalis. The resulting works, one by the French priest and church historian Louis Duchesne, the other by the classicist and German patriot Theodor Mommsen, showcase the editors’ divergent aims in the application of recensionist criticism, shaped as it was by their scholarly, national, religious, and personal loyalties. Mommsen’s edition adheres to the principles of ‘German’ critical philology and its desire to recover the original text; Duchesne’s two volumes exploit the nature of the medieval papal chronicle as a constantly changing ‘living text’ in order to emphasize the historical significance of its reception. Both editions illustrate the themes of marginality and canonicity as they relate to literary genre and historical period, to religious commitment and national sentiment, and to the tension between classical methodology and medieval texts.
Francis Oakley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300194432
- eISBN:
- 9780300213799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300194432.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter discusses the intellectual and the educational life of the Mediterranean world during the period of late antiquity, as well as during the centuries that ensued in the medieval Latin ...
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This chapter discusses the intellectual and the educational life of the Mediterranean world during the period of late antiquity, as well as during the centuries that ensued in the medieval Latin West. The intellectual atmosphere and educational traditions in this region could be considered tension-ridden. Foremost among these conflicts was the ongoing tension between philosophical reason and biblical revelation. This tension predated the medieval centuries and persisted into the modern era. In addition, there was the tension between rhetoricians and philosophers, which could be traced from Athens of the fourth century BCE. This conflict makes its presence felt down to the present, though of late, it has functioned as a scarcely recognized factor amid the “alarms of struggle and flight.”Less
This chapter discusses the intellectual and the educational life of the Mediterranean world during the period of late antiquity, as well as during the centuries that ensued in the medieval Latin West. The intellectual atmosphere and educational traditions in this region could be considered tension-ridden. Foremost among these conflicts was the ongoing tension between philosophical reason and biblical revelation. This tension predated the medieval centuries and persisted into the modern era. In addition, there was the tension between rhetoricians and philosophers, which could be traced from Athens of the fourth century BCE. This conflict makes its presence felt down to the present, though of late, it has functioned as a scarcely recognized factor amid the “alarms of struggle and flight.”
Maria Esposito Frank
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263868
- eISBN:
- 9780823266302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263868.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
After surveying a variety of apologetical and polemical Christian texts on Islam which circulated in medieval Eastern and Latin Christendom, this study traces the changing Christian perceptions of, ...
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After surveying a variety of apologetical and polemical Christian texts on Islam which circulated in medieval Eastern and Latin Christendom, this study traces the changing Christian perceptions of, and responses to, Islam. The trajectory followed in this study shows a progression from widespread — with few, precious exceptions — views of Islam as barbarism and idolatry, doomed to soon disappear, to more serious considerations of Islam as the theological ones that emerged in the late Middle Ages, when Ecclesiastic authorities began to address it on adoctrinal basis, as a Christological heresy. This study argues that, within a faulty understanding of Islam and of his Prophet, but outside the prevailing views at his time, Dante’s portrayal of Islam and his Prophet in Inferno 28 is the expression Dante’s own peculiar understanding of the Islamic faith and of Muhammad’s life. Subtly distinguishing between heresy and schism, Dante’ s Muhammad concludes that the image of the Prophet in the eighth circle of Hell is reminiscent of Arius, a controversial figure connected with a long history of theological division within Christendom. Additional arguments pointing at Dante’s references to Arius in Paradiso 13, and at the strong influence on Dante of Boethius’s writings and vicissitudes — especially his martyrdom by decree of the Arian king Theodoric — further explain the violation of the unity of the Christian community, which is the center of Inferno 28.Less
After surveying a variety of apologetical and polemical Christian texts on Islam which circulated in medieval Eastern and Latin Christendom, this study traces the changing Christian perceptions of, and responses to, Islam. The trajectory followed in this study shows a progression from widespread — with few, precious exceptions — views of Islam as barbarism and idolatry, doomed to soon disappear, to more serious considerations of Islam as the theological ones that emerged in the late Middle Ages, when Ecclesiastic authorities began to address it on adoctrinal basis, as a Christological heresy. This study argues that, within a faulty understanding of Islam and of his Prophet, but outside the prevailing views at his time, Dante’s portrayal of Islam and his Prophet in Inferno 28 is the expression Dante’s own peculiar understanding of the Islamic faith and of Muhammad’s life. Subtly distinguishing between heresy and schism, Dante’ s Muhammad concludes that the image of the Prophet in the eighth circle of Hell is reminiscent of Arius, a controversial figure connected with a long history of theological division within Christendom. Additional arguments pointing at Dante’s references to Arius in Paradiso 13, and at the strong influence on Dante of Boethius’s writings and vicissitudes — especially his martyrdom by decree of the Arian king Theodoric — further explain the violation of the unity of the Christian community, which is the center of Inferno 28.
